Occre trinidad stern ornament

[Peter Schaap]

mberg, you win today's Best of the Internet prize for diplomatic understatement!

I'm convinced that anybody contemplating spending nearly $800 USD for any "medi-OcCre" model to just walk the other way! There are too many reasons to count the ways, but mberg has very artfully summarized all of them. OcCre's model line is in many respects a contradiction in that they offer "simplified," inaccurate models of complex, highly detailed subjects. In the end, even when the builder can overcome the challenges of less than adequate instructions, lower quality materials, and out-of-scale fittings, the result is a model that looks like a toy.

Your "good eye" for a quality model is correctly offended by OcCre's slipshod treatment of the stern decoration. Don't forget that that's just the stern. The entire model suffers from the same "dumbed down" details. Given the underlying unsophisticated detail of the stock OcCre model, adding the beautifully detailed after-market 3D-modeled "gingerbread" would only be an exercise in "putting lipstick on a pig." In this instance, if your ambition is to build any sort of "monster" expert-level ship-of-the line model, you'd be well advised to bite the bullet a bit harder and buy the most highly recommended kit of such a model you can find. As you are looking for a kit, you may have to find another ship of the line that's available in a high-quality kit. (Artisania Latina's Santissima Trinidad is no better, if not worse, than OcCre's.) That may be disappointing if your heart is set on Santissima Trinidad, but it's a fact of life that the kit modeler is limited to the subjects that are available on the marekt at any given time. Fortunately, there are many similar subjects, some of high quality, from which to choose an alternate subject. Study the build logs closely to make an informed choice. You will be glad you did and your time will be far better spent building it.

Beyond that, there's no way I can do better with words than mberg already has. A picture is worth a thousand words. Compare the two below. Which model would you rather live with as your "masterpiece" for the rest of your days?


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Unfortunately, I am just a simple beginner who thinks he has found a wonderful hobby. For me, successfully completing even a straightforward kit (no matter how inferior it might be) will likely be quite a challenge. By researching and learning from the members of this forum, I am trying to achieve a more satisfying result despite the limitations of the kit. We should all strive for quality, but for me, enjoying this hobby is just as important.

 

[mberg]

Unfortunately, I am just a simple beginner who thinks he has found a wonderful hobby. For me, successfully completing even a straightforward kit (no matter how inferior it might be) will likely be quite a challenge. By researching and learning from the members of this forum, I am trying to achieve a more satisfying result despite the limitations of the kit. We should all strive for quality, but for me, enjoying this hobby is just as important.

And that's exactly why I would suggest starting with a good quality, smallish kit on the cheaper side. There's much you will learn; techniques that work for you, how wood reacts and how to work it, glue, tools, etc. On top of all that, you quickly gain an 'eye' for scale and quality, and learn what you like and don't like working on.

After that, a kit that looked great to you before you started the hobby may now immediately show it's 'pig under the lipstick' if I use Bob's analogy. You'll also have a much better idea of what you want to work on.

That is; if you've never built a kit before.

 

[Peter Schaap]

Please forgive me, as my English is not very good.
Regarding your comment: 'After that, a kit that looked great to you before you started the hobby may now immediately show its pig under the lipstick...', if you mean that I might ruin a beautiful model due to my lack of experience, I take that as well-intended advice.

However, what I struggle with (possibly due to my English) is how you and others seem to look down on kits of lesser quality. By doing so, many enthusiastic builders—and certainly not just beginners like myself—who simply think a ship is beautiful, are being done a disservice.
A model might not have high-end quality and might even look like a toy to some, but if a member is happy with the result, I believe that is what truly matters.
Quod visum placet.
Dixi.